Business Management Categories

Best Application Programming Interface (API) Management Platform

Recognizes the best platform that creates a centralized API architecture that makes the process of making, securing, deploying and managing high-performance interfaces significantly simpler and more consistent.

Judges will be looking for:

Analytics and Statistics – Does it give you insights into how people use your API?

Developer Engagement – Does the platform help you effectively engage with your API customers, developer and partners

Documentation – does the platform provide an easy way to read the documentation, enabling developers

Monetization – capability to monetize your API

Overall performance – Is the platform reliable, scalable and redundant?

Range and Ease of Deployment – Is it flexible and support a range of deployment options

Security – How secure is the API’s data? Does it provide for secure identity and access management?

Best Artificial Intelligence/ Machine Learning Solution

Recognizes the product, tool or solution best able to augment human intelligence and better automate tasks for the user. The winning solution will have incorporated machine and deep learning algorithms into their everyday functionality and may include solutions that solve a specific problem or a variety of functions. The category is open to API, SaaS and hardware solutions. Examples may include but are not limited to visual, data analysis (structured and unstructured text, images, audio, video, etc.) decision making by understanding a user's personality, tone, and emotion; and translation between languages (including speech).

Judges will be looking for:

Automation of functions - how well does the solution save the user time and energy, making their job simpler, and allowing employees to work more efficiently and productively? How well does the AI have the ability to do things humans can't do? i.e. searc

data analysis – How well does the solution interpret structured and unstructured text, images, audio, video, etc.? Skip if N/A.

Interoperability - Where appropriate, can this product be integrated with other relevant systems OR can the content and/or data within the product be exported?

Learn - How well does the system grow subject matter expertise in your apps/ systems? To what extent does the system get smarter over time? Skip if N/A.

Reasoning personalized recommendations - How well does the tool understand/ interpret a user's personality, tone, and emotion? Skip if N/A

Content depth and accuracy - Are the measures and metrics appropriate for measuring and understanding content consumption, activity and overall use? Does this product address the depth of information required to serve the audience?

Feature set - Does the feature set incorporated within this product appropriately meet the needs of the audience?

Platform flexibility and accessibility - Is the solution made available through the delivery platforms appropriate to the target audience and use?

Usability - Can the user easily and efficiently interact with the product features to achieve their desired result or retrieve reports or gain access? How well does the system enable human experts to provide input on training or data, so that the AI is ev

Best Billing & Subscription Management Solution

Recognizes the best solution to help companies manage all aspects of the subscription lifecycle. Subscription management includes onboarding, assisted or unassisted subscription sales, pricing and packaging, recurring billing, auto-renewing, paywall management, invoicing, reporting, and financial management.

Judges will be looking for:

Administrative tools – How robust are the administrative tools?

Ease of use – How well does the product allow users to achieve goals with effectiveness, efficiency, and satisfaction in a specified context of use?

Functionality of key attributes – Do the key attributes function as described?

Global support – How well does the solution support multiple languages, currencies, etc.?

Implementation – How easily and quickly can the solution be implemented?

Integration – How easily does the solution integrate with other systems?

Reporting and analysis of data – How robust are the dashboards and reports for analysis?

Scalability – Does the solution have the ability to scale up or down?

Security – How robust are the security features?

Best Cloud Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) Solution

Recognizes the best cloud platform for collecting, storing, managing and interpreting data from many business activities. Can include but is not limited to finance, inventory management, HR functions, product planning, purchasing, manufacturing, and service delivery.

Judges will be looking for:

Customization – Strength of customization capabilities

Ease of use – How well does the product allow users to achieve goals with effectiveness, efficiency, and satisfaction in a specified context of use?

Functionality of key attributes – Do the key attributes function as described?

Implementation – How easily and quickly can the solution be implemented?

Interoperability - Can this product be integrated with other relevant systems?

Mobile Functionality - Is the tool available on mobile devices? How easy is it to use while on the go/ to view on a small screen?

Reporting and analysis of data – How robust are the dashboards and reports for analysis?

Best Collaboration Solution

Recognizes the best application that aids collaboration, communication, filesharing and the process of problem solving for teams working together over geographic distances.

Judges will be looking for:

Ease of use – How well does the product allow users to achieve goals with effectiveness, efficiency, and satisfaction in a specified context of use?

Flexibility of deployment – How well does the solution reach any work, in any location, on any device, over all networks?

Functionality of key attributes – Do the key attributes function as described?

Implementation – How easily and quickly can the solution be implemented?

Integration with other systems – How well does the solution integrate into the current infrastructure?

Best Content Intelligence Solution

Recognizes the best solution for monitoring, analyzing and drawing insights from a wide range of content, including news, opinions and conversations. The best solution will capture content across various forms of digital and traditional media, including web, mobile, social, TV, print, etc. The best solution will be "live" with active customers, engaging them through innovative approaches to dealing with comments and ease of sharing with others. Nominees should ideally provide access to the platform and demos are preferable and should highlight how the solution provides value to their customers and is differentiated from other solutions in the market. Nominees should also indicate if they specialize in a certain industry/vertical and/or specific media channels.

Judges will be looking for:

Content depth and accuracy - Is the content accurate and timely for the stated use case? Does this product address the depth of information required to serve the audience?

Customization or personalization - Is the level of customization/personalization appropriate to the audience and use case presented?

Feature set - Does the feature set incorporated within this product appropriately meet the needs of the audience and use case indicated in previous criteria?

Groundbreaking & significance of innovation - Is the solution likely to cause groundbreaking change for its users?

Search capabilities - how robust are the search capabilities of the solution? How easy is it for the user to find the information they need?

Significance of innovation - How significant is the technological innovation of the solution? Is it groundbreaking to users?

Usability - Can the user easily and efficiently interact with the product features, content, etc.? How easy is it for the user to achieve their desired result?

Best Content Search, Discovery & Analytics Solution

Recognizes the best search technology that delivers added context to end users and drives a more productive, intuitive search experience by leveraging ontologies, taxonomies, semantic analytics, text data mining and industry or application specific concepts across data, text, geography and time for both structured and unstructured content sets.

Judges will be looking for:

Customization/ personalization - Is the level of customization/personalization appropriate to the audience and use case presented?

Faceted search capabilities - Does the system allow you to explore information by applying multiple filters?

Feature set - Does the feature set incorporated within this product appropriately meet the needs of the audience and use case indicated? (Consider: multi-language support, stemming, and other advanced search features, etc.)

Flexibility & accessibility - Is the product optimized to be used on various platforms? Can the platform deliver various types of content?

Taxonomies – Is the product able to leverage taxonomies to drive search relevance and offer users refinement and filtering capabilities?

Content set and data Integration - Is the solution easy to integrate with a range of content and datasets?

Usability - Can the user easily and efficiently interact with the product features to achieve their desired result?

Best Corporate / Enterprise Learning Solution

Recognizes the best platform, service or provider that supports the efforts of organizations (business, government, academia) to educate employees about specific knowledge that aids in the successful execution of an employee's job. Includes applications that educate on internal processes, practices, expectations and objectives of workplace assignments.

Judges will be looking for:

Assessment - To what extent are the assessment tools useful and functional for the user?

Customization - Is the learning solution customizable for different types of content areas, courses, user needs and education outcomes?

Feature set - Does the feature set incorporated within this product appropriately meet the needs of the users?

Feedback - Do learners with diverse learning styles and abilities receive appropriate feedback and reinforcement in the process of building their skills and strategies?

Innovation - Does the system incorporate recent research on learning, innovative approaches to learning, or access to new tools with high student interest?

Platform flexibility - Is the solution optimized to be used on various platforms (e.g. desktop, tablet, mobile, broadcast) and deliver various types of content (text, images, audio, video)?

Positive impact - Could the system produce a positive impact on course development and implementation and/or the learning process?

Reports - Will the system produce useful reports for the organization and the user?

Usability - How easily and efficiently can the user interact with the product features and the content to achieve their desired result?

Best Customer Relationship Management Solution

Recognizes the best software solution designed to expand a company's knowledge about, and relationship with, its current or potential customers and/or partners. Includes CRM, PRM, SFA, marketing automation, personalization products and services.

Judges will be looking for:

Ease of use –How well does the product allow users to achieve goals with effectiveness, efficiency, and satisfaction in a specified context of use?

Functionality of key attributes – Do the key attributes function as described?

Implementation – How easily and quickly can the solution be implemented?

Integration of data sources – How easily and quickly does the solution integrate with other data sources?

Mobile access – Is the tool available on mobile devices? How easy is it to use while on the go/ to view on a small screen?

Overall performance – Does the solution perform at adequate speed, security, and reliability?

Reporting and analysis of data – How robust are the dashboards and reports for analysis?

Speed of updates – Does the solution provide timely and speedy updates?

Visually aesthetic – Is the application’s visual design beautiful, innovative, and visually appealing to the user?

Best Customer Service Solution

Recognizes the best tool, platform, or service that helps businesses enhance their customer service and support. Includes help-desk services, live chat, social media tools, technology enabled service providers, etc. Note that it is helpful to provide solution access to the judges during the review period for this category.

Judges will be looking for:

Ease of use –How well does the product or service allow users to achieve goals with effectiveness, efficiency, and satisfaction in a specified context of use?

Functionality of key attributes – Do the key attributes function as described?

Implementation – How easily, cheaply, and quickly can the solution be implemented?

Integration of data sources – How easily and quickly does the solution integrate with other data sources?

Overall performance – Does the solution perform at adequate speed, security, scalability, and reliability? Is it able to site statistics proving speed, security and reliability?

Reporting and analysis of data – How robust are the dashboards and reports for data analysis?

Support – What level of support does the tool provide?

Visually aesthetic – Is the application’s visual design beautiful, innovative, and appealing to the user?

Data validation – How much visibility does the solution provide into the data quality?

Development tools –How robust and easy to use are the development tools? How easy is it for non-techies to create effective data visualizations/graphics? Does the tool have any intelligence capabilities to help the novice user?

Ease of use –How aesthetically pleasing is the visualized data? What is the range of visual templates available for users?

Implementation – How easily and quickly can the solution be implemented?

Mobile access – Is the tool available on mobile devices? How easy is it to use while on the go/ to view on a small screen?

Personalization – Can the user personalize their data experience to fit their roles, responsibilities and preferences?

Reporting and analysis of data – How robust are the dashboards and reports for data analysis?

Visually aesthetic – Is the application’s visual design beautiful, innovative, and appealing to the user?

Best Emerging Technology

Recognizes best emerging technology product, tool or solution that is solving a big problem, changing the status quo and opening up new opportunities. Products must be less than three years old or has put out a new version that includes new technology that is controversial and/ or relatively underdeveloped in potential.

Judges will be looking for:

Coherence – Does the technology have integrated wholes that can maintain themselves over some period of time?

Disruption – the potential to disrupt the market in the future. The potential to disrupt the market in the future by creating new technology, new delivery methods, new business models or new audience/user community.

Ease of use – How well does the product allow users to achieve goals with effectiveness, efficiency, and satisfaction in a specified context of use. The goals should be clearly defined for the targeted market with an examples of new user methods for adopt

Functionality of key attributes – Do the key attributes function as described? Does the functionality support the attributes in new or disruptive ways?

Prominent Impact – To what degree does the technology represent progressive developments within a field for competitive advantage, extensive adoption and market reach.

Radical Novelty – Are there features not previously observed in systems? Are there new inventions, patents or business methods that support the novelty? These features should be clearly articulated with examples of the disruption to the market or clear ou

Best Event Management Solution

Recognizes the best solution for managing the production and execution for events. Includes registration, payment processing, sponsor and attendee management, event marketing, reporting, event program, budgeting, etc.

Ease of use – How well does the product allow users to achieve goals with effectiveness, efficiency, and satisfaction in a specified context of use?

Functionality of key attributes – Do the key attributes function as described?

Implementation – How easily and quickly can the solution be implemented?

Integration of data sources – How easily and quickly does the solution integrate with other data sources?

Overall performance – Does the solution perform at adequate speed, security, and reliability?

Reporting and analysis of data – How robust are the dashboards and reports for data analysis?

Scalability – Does the solution have the ability to scale up or down?

Visually aesthetic – Is the application’s visual design beautiful, innovative, and appealing to the user?

Best Financial Management Solution

Recognizes the best software solution that automates business accounting and money management including accounts payable/receivable, general ledger, budgeting, resource allocation, reporting, etc.

Judges will be looking for:

Disparate data sources - How well does the solution pull from disparate data sources?

Ease of use – How well does the product allow users to achieve goals with effectiveness, efficiency, and satisfaction in a specified context of use?

Functionality of key attributes – Do the key attributes function as described?

Global support – How well does the solution support multiple languages, currencies, etc.?

Implementation – How easily and quickly can the solution be implemented?

Manipulation of data – How well does the solution allow for manipulation of data for reporting?

Mobile access – Is the tool available on mobile devices? How easy is it to use while on the go/ to view on a small screen?

Reporting and analysis of data – How robust are the dashboards and reports for analysis?

Visually aesthetic – Is the application’s visual design beautiful, innovative, and appealing to the user?

Best FinTech Solution

Recognizes the best solution to make financial services more efficient by demonstrating an incremental or radical/disruptive innovation development of applications, processes, products or business models in the financial services industry. This can include but is not limited to financing, insurance, investments, payments, advisory, security, etc.

Judges will be looking for:

Customization or personalization - Is the level of customization/personalization appropriate to the audience and use case presented?

Feature set - Does the feature set incorporated within this product appropriately meet the needs of the audience?

Interoperability - Where appropriate can this product be integrated with other relevant systems?

Platform Flexibility & Accessibility - Is the solution made available through the delivery platforms appropriate for the target audience?

Relevance to target audience - Does the product effectively solve a specific market need? Does the product transform a market sector? Does it enable a traditional financial institution to enter this market space through an outsourced solution?

Usability - Can the user easily and efficiently interact with the product features to achieve their desired result?

Best Human Capital or Talent Management Solution

Recognizes the best solution that automates any aspect of human resources management and talent acquisition, including HRIS, benefits administration, recruiting, payroll, and performance appraisal.

Judges will be looking for:

Disparate data sources - How well does the solution pull from disparate data sources?

Ease of use – How well does the product allow users to achieve goals with effectiveness, efficiency, and satisfaction in a specified context of use?

Functionality of key attributes – Do the key attributes function as described?

Global support – How well does the solution support multiple languages, currencies, etc.?

Implementation – How easily and quickly can the solution be implemented?

Manipulation of data – How well does the solution allow for manipulation of data for reporting?

Reporting and analysis of data – How robust are the dashboards and reports for analysis?

Visually aesthetic – Is the application’s visual design beautiful, innovative, and appealing to the user?

Best IoT Solution

Recognizes the best solution that offers advanced connectivity of devices, systems and services.

Judges will be looking for:

Actionable analysis – How well does the solution access and analyze relevant data that provides the foundation for specific actions?

Ease of use –How well does the product allow users to achieve goals with effectiveness, efficiency, and satisfaction in a specified context of use?

Functionality of key attributes – Do the key attributes function as described?

Network connectivity – Does the solution support a range of networking interfaces and protocols to provide the necessary connectivity?

Normalization of Data – How well does the solution reduce the data to its canonical form?

Security – Does the solution have the necessary security to mitigate risk?

Visually aesthetic – Is the application’s visual design beautiful, innovative, and visually appealing to the user?

Best Logistics & Supply Chain Solution

Recognizes the best solution for coordination and collaboration with suppliers, intermediaries, third-party service providers, and customers in the movement and storage of materials and equipment; work-in-process inventory, and finished goods from point of origin to point of consumption.

Judges will be looking for:

Collaboration - How well does the tool allow users to collaborate with other partners?

Ease of use – How well does the product allow users to achieve goals with effectiveness, efficiency, and satisfaction in a specified context of use?

Functionality of key attributes – Do the key attributes function as described?

Implementation – How easily and quickly can the solution be implemented?

Integration – How well does the solution integrate with other systems?

Inventory management – How efficiently does the solution allow you to track and manage inventory?

Logistics – How well are goods stored and distributed?

Order management – How efficiently does the solution allow you to generate and track sales orders?

Procurement – How well does the product manage activities and tasks surrounding sourcing, purchasing, and payables?

Reporting and analysis of data – How robust are the dashboards and reports for analysis?

Best Payments Solution

Recognizes the best solution for passing authorization, payments, and settlement data between a merchant’s website and the merchant’s processor.

Judges will be looking for:

Billing – does the solution provide adequate billing options

Currency Support – Can the solution support multiple currencies?

Ease of use – How well does the product allow users to achieve goals with effectiveness, efficiency, and satisfaction in a specified context of use

Interoperability - Can this product be integrated with other relevant systems?

Overall performance – Does the solution perform at adequate speed, security, and reliability?

Reporting – the ability and ease to report transaction data

Security - Does the solution have the necessary security to mitigate risk?

Best Project Management Solution

Recognizes the best business solution that automates any aspect of managing project-based business activities. Includes estimation and planning, scheduling, cost control and budget management, resource allocation, collaboration, etc.

Judges will be looking for:

Collaboration capabilities – How well can project members collaborate seamlessly, regardless of location?

Document management – How well does the tool allow you to share files and documents with other project team members?

Ease of use – How well does the product allow users to achieve goals with effectiveness, efficiency, and satisfaction in a specified context of use?

Functionality of key attributes – Do the key attributes function as described?

Implementation – How easily and quickly can the solution be implemented?

Overall performance - How well does the solution rank with regards to overall speed, security, and reliability?

Reporting and analysis of data – How robust are the dashboards and reports for analysis?

Task management – how well does the solution allow users to define a task, assigning it, create a deadline and ensuring completion?

Best Sales Enablement Platform

Recognizes the best sales enablement platform, which equips sales teams with the right content and information for any interaction with a potential buyer through document automation and helps progress and accelerate the sales cycle. Sales enablement platforms may include content management solutions that allow sales teams to access all relevant and marketing-approved collateral from a central location, personalize materials for specific buyers and interactions, and uncovers data-backed insights into how that content is consumed.

Judges will be looking for:

Outcomes – Rate the application on the stated business outcomes. Does it deliver on its promise of a compelling value proposition to customers and end users?

Alignment - How well does the platform align marketing in sales in terms of sales content initiatives? How well does the platform provide marketing with data and information on how to iterate and improve sales content?

Distribution features - How many ways does the platform allow the rep to distribute content to a buyer? How robust and innovative are the distribution methods available to the rep?

Collaboration features - How easy is it for sales reps to collaborate with others on presentations and pitches to buyers? What content annotation and mark-up tools are available to reps?

Feedback and coaching features - Does the platform allow for sales teams to provide feedback and coaching on presentation and pitch preparation, either through video or other annotation featured?

Analytics and reporting features - How well does the solution provide analytics and data-backed insight into content usage and effectiveness?

Compliance features - Does the platform ensure that content remains compliant when used within heavily regulated industries?

Customization/personalization features - How well does the platform enable sales reps to customize content based for specific interactions and individuals while ensuring that the content remains on-brand and updated?

Integration features - How well does the platform integrate with third-party platforms that would be used in a buying cycle? Such platforms include CRM, content creation, marketing automation, and other content repositories solutions.

Permission protocols - How easy is it to set up permissions and authorization rules prior to content being approved?

Version control - How easy is it to locate and find prior versions of content?

Workflow features - How well is the solution embedded in the customers' workflow? Does the platform exist within other environments that sales reps used most often (e.g. Salesforce, email platforms)?

Usability and UX - How easy is it for the user to achieve their desired result? Is it mobile friendly?

Technological advancement – Does the application make appropriate of advanced technologies to deliver a superior experience to the customer?

Best Social Media Solution

Recognizes the best solution for managing and monitoring social media campaigns, building and engaging customers, and collecting and analyzing data, across multiple social networks.

Judges will be looking for:

Campaign management - How well does the solution allow you to manage social media campaigns?

Ease of use – How well does the product allow users to achieve goals with effectiveness, efficiency, and satisfaction in a specified context of use?

Engagement capabilities – How well does the solution allow users to effectively engage with prospects, customers, and other networks?

Implementation – How easily and quickly can the solution be implemented?

Monitoring and tracking of activity – How well does the solution monitor and track various types of social activity?

Reporting and analysis of data – How robust are the dashboards and reports for analysis?

Robustness of publishing features – How easy to use are the publishing features? How fast are they?

Content Management Platform

Recognizes the best tool, platform or service that allows users to sort through vast amounts of content and present it in a meaningful and organized way. Solutions allow users to arrange, display, collect, organize, co-create, share and manipulate content.

Judges will be looking for:

Customization/ personalization - Is the level of customization appropriate to the audience? Since personalization can mean more than customization, I would ask this in a different way, or add a new question like: Can the platform be customized to meet the

Feature set - Does the feature set incorporated within this product appropriately meet the needs of the audience?

Usability - Can the user easily achieve their desired results?

Platform curation flexibility - Is the platform capable of curating anything with a URL or is it limited to a few different tools?

Collaboration - How well does the platform allow you to collaborate with other curators or co-create content?

Share - Does the platform make it easy to share and manipulate content?

Automation - How well does the platform let you automate certain activities?

Extensibility and integration - How easy is it for an enterprise to enhance the platform and/or plug it into existing content creation/distribution platforms?

Data & Analytics Categories

Best Big Data Reporting & Analytics Solution

Recognizes the best solution for reporting and analyzing actionable intelligence from massive data sets containing a variety of data types.

Judges will be looking for:

Collaboration – How easily can you share dashboards and reports, and/or integrate into other formats / platforms / reporting tools?

Data management – How well does the solution provide insight into the quality of the data?

Ease of use –How well does the product allow users to achieve goals with effectiveness, efficiency, and satisfaction in a specified context of use?

Functionality of key attributes – Do the key attributes function as described?

Integration – Can the solution easily integrate data from a variety of sources?

Manipulation of data – How well does the solution allow for manipulation of data for reporting?

Reporting and Analytics – How robust are the dashboards and reports for analysis? Does it provide interactive analysis, reporting and visualization?

Security and auditing – How robust are the security and auditing features?

Best Big Data Tools & Platform

Recognizes the best platform for enabling organizations in developing, deploying, operating and managing a big data infrastructure/environment.

Judges will be looking for:

Data I/O performance – How quickly and reliably is the data transferred to/from devices or resources?

Ease of use – How well does the product allow users to achieve goals with effectiveness, efficiency, and satisfaction in a specified context of use?

Functionality of key attributes – Do the key attributes function as described?

Implementation – How easily and quickly can the solution be implemented?

Performance management – How well does the platform allow you to track, monitor and drive performance?

Real-time processing – Does the platform or tool have the ability to process the data and produce results within certain time constraints?

Scalability – How well can the system adapt to increased demand?

Best Business Intelligence Reporting & Analytics Solution

Recognizes the best solution for reporting and analyzing data into useful information for business purposes.

Judges will be looking for:

Content depth and accuracy - Is the content accurate and timely for the stated use case? Does this product address the depth of information required to serve the audience?

Customization or personalization - Is the level of customization/personalization appropriate to the audience and use case presented?

Usability - Can the user easily and efficiently interact with the product features to achieve their desired result?

Best Business Intelligence Tools & Platforms

Recognizes the best platform for enabling enterprises to build BI into their applications by providing analysis, information delivery and platform integration.

Judges will be looking for:

Data performance – How quickly and reliably is the data transferred to/from devices or resources?

Ease of use – How well does the product allow users to achieve goals with effectiveness, efficiency, and satisfaction in a specified context of use?

Functionality of key attributes – Do the key attributes function as described?

Implementation – How easily and quickly can the solution be implemented?

Integration – Can the solution easily integrate data from a variety of sources?

Performance management – How well does the platform allow you to track, monitor and drive performance?

Scalability – Is the infrastructure scalable?

Best Content Analytics Solution

Recognizes the best content and data analytics solution that helps providers understand content utilization and performance data. Nominees may submit analytics solutions that include proprietary platforms and algorithmic software that measure, evaluate and analyze content and performance data. May include mobile tracking and analytics.

Judges will be looking for:

Content depth and accuracy - Are the measures and metrics appropriate for measuring and understanding content consumption, activity and overall use? Does this product address the depth of information required to serve the audience?

Customization or personalization -Can the tool/platform be customized for each user to demonstrate desired/needed analytics and reports?

Feature set - Does the feature set incorporated within this product appropriately meet the needs of the audience?

Interoperability - Where appropriate, can this product be integrated with other relevant systems OR can the content and/or data within the product be exported?

Platform flexibility and accessibility - Is the solution made available through the delivery platforms appropriate to the target audience and use?

Usability - Can the user easily and efficiently interact with the product features to achieve their desired result or retrieve reports or gain access?

Best Integration Platform as a Service (iPaaS)

Recognizes the best solution designed to integrate disparate applications, operating systems, data, and/or business processes used within an organization in order to simplify and automate their use and eliminate silos of information and functionality through dashboards or other approaches.

Data validation – How much visibility does the solution provide into the data quality?

Development tools –How robust and easy to use are the development tools?

Implementation – How easily and quickly can the solution be implemented?

Range of connectors – The range of applications, files, databases and web services the solution can connect to

Range of deployment options – is a range of deployment options offered? For example, on premise, Cloud, virtualized, hybrid, etc.

Security – How secure is the data transfer?

Advertising, Sales & Marketing Categories

Best Campaign Management Platform

Recognizes the best platform that helps companies manage their marketing and advertising. The platform may include integrated planning, execution and attribution, and campaign management that enables the user to adjust/ optimize advertising spend.

Judges will be looking for:

Analytics - How well does the solution provide analytics in regards to ad performance and provide real-time reporting and notification?

Budget/cost management – How well does the solution manage budget, bidding, price optimization for campaigns

Customization - How customizable is the solution to meet various customer needs?

Feature set - Does the solution have a deep set of features that appropriately meet the needs of its customers?

Integration - How well does the solution integrate with third-party applications, such as ad networks, social sites, e-commerce sites, etc.?

Mobile - How strong are the features for execution or follow up in the mobile application or via the mobile site?

Significance of innovation - How significant is the technological innovation of the solution?

Targeting - How well does the solution identify and target specific customer segments and engage decision makers?

Technology - How current is the technology of the solution in regards to real-time graphic display of data, metrics and results appropriate for internal client use?

Usability & UI - How easy is the solution to figure out and use? Can the user easily and efficiently interact with the product features? How easy is it for the user to achieve their desired result?

Video - How strong are the video advertising features for execution or follow up?

Workflow - How well is the solution embedded in the customers' workflow, organizing, creating and distributing ads and providing preconfigured reports, dashboards and metrics?

Best Content Marketing Solution

Recognizes the best solution for creating compelling and engaging content and distributing that content in a targeted manner across various media

Judges will be looking for:

Analytics - How well does the solution provide analytics and real-time reporting?

Compliance - Does the solution ensure that the content can be legally used?

Content curation - How well does the product facilitate discovery and procurement of custom content, or how well does the platform hire/manage freelancer and/or license existing, external content?

Distribution - How well does the solution disseminate content across multiple channels?

Integration – How well does the product integrate with other marketing apps (CRM, website analytics, etc.)

Segmentation - How well does the solution allow users to segment contacts?

Targeting - How well does the solution identify customer segments and engage them with their content interests?

Usability - Can the user easily and efficiently interact with the product features to achieve their desired result?

Workflow - How well is the solution embedded in the customers' workflow?

Best Marketing Solution

Recognizes the best solution that enables companies to target, measure, and market, products and services to reach consumers and customers online, on mobile devices and even off-line. Solutions can include (but not limited to) marketing tactics such as SEO, SEM, social media, display advertising, native advertising, content marketing automation, marketing management, campaign management and deployment, and mobile marketing.

Judges will be looking for:

Connection to contacts – The ability to facilitate connections with prospects, customers, etc.

Ease of use – How well does the product allow users to achieve goals with effectiveness, efficiency, and satisfaction in a specified context of use?

Functionality of key attributes – Do the key attributes function as described?

Implementation – How easily and quickly can the solution be implemented?

Lead generation – How well does the solution identify and drive leads?

Reporting and analytics – How robust are the dashboards and reports for analysis?

Visually aesthetic – Is the solution’s visual design beautiful, innovative, and visually appealing to the user?

Best Sales & Marketing Intelligence Solution

Recognizes the best sales & marketing intelligence solution, which empowers sales and marketing professionals with key data, insights and analytics to help drive business development and target potential sales prospects. Solutions may include B2B data, prospect databases, contact information, sales analytics and other tools used by sales and marketing professionals to more effectively uncover and target new opportunities within their existing customer base.

Judges will be looking for:

Analytics - How well does the solution provide analytics?

Campaign creation - How easy is it to create outbound marketing campaigns?

Customization - How customizable is the solution to meet various customer needs?

Feature set - Does the solution have a deep set of features that appropriately meet the needs of its customers?

Integration - How well does the solution integrate with third-party platforms that would be used in lead generation?

Lead augmentation - How well does the solution append missing or additional information to a lead or data file, either from its own data set or from a third-party provider?

Lead management - How well does the solution manage multi-channel lead generation campaigns?

Lead management/ reporting - How quickly and efficiently can the solution respond and deliver relevant data/information for lead generation?

Targeting - How well does the solution identify, score and target specific customer segments and pass on top leads?

Usability and UI - How easy is it for the user to achieve their desired result? Is it mobile friendly?

Workflow - How well is the solution embedded in the customers' workflow?

Vertical Market Categories

Best Business Information or Data Delivery Solution

Recognizes the best information solution that helps business professionals with their daily job functions including strategy, business development, sales, marketing, research or other corporate functions. Solutions could include business and industry news, market research, business directories, company/ industry information, executive profiles, financial data, analyst reports, vertical segment information, competitive intelligence, etc.

Judges will be looking for:

Content depth and accuracy - Is the content accurate and timely for the stated use case? Does this product address the depth of information required to serve the audience?

Customization or personalization - Is the level of customization/personalization appropriate to the audience and use case presented?

Best Healthcare Technology Solution

Ease of use – How well does the product allow users to achieve goals with effectiveness, efficiency, and satisfaction in a specified context of use?

Functionality of key attributes – Do the key attributes function as described?

Implementation – How easily and quickly can the solution be implemented?

Overall impact on costs – Does the solution have a positive impact costs?

Overall performance – Is the solution reliable and does it run at an optimal speed?

Workflow improvement – How well does the solution integrate into and/or improve existing workflows?

Best Insurance Solution

Recognizes the best solution designed specifically for insurance agencies and agents. Can include solutions for insurers, brokers, property and casualty, life, pension and annuities, reinsurance and retirement markets, etc.

Judges will be looking for:

Activity tracking and management

Account and contract management

Quote and policy issuing capability

Reporting and Analytics

Speed and flexibility

User interface

Best Legal Solution

Recognizes the best information-based solution designed for the legal professional. Nominees may submit solutions that provide access to legal research information, business & practice performance / productivity / development tools, as well as litigation support, workflow, and e-discovery solutions.

Judges will be looking for:

Content depth and accuracy - Is the content accurate and timely for the stated use case? Does this product address the depth of information required to serve the audience?

Customization or personalization - Is the level of customization/personalization appropriate to the audience and use case presented?

Feature set - Does the feature set incorporated within this product appropriately meet the needs of the audience and use case indicated in previous criteria?

Interoperability - Where appropriate with respect to the audience and use case, can this product be integrated with other relevant systems OR can the content and/or data within the product be exported?

Platform flexibility and accessibility - Is the solution made available through the delivery platforms appropriate to the target audience?

Demand planning and forecasting - ability to keep on top of anticipated demand and ensure there is enough supply to satisfy customer needs

Inventory Management

Material requirements planning – ability to automate the front end of the production process

Quality control

Product life cycle management – ability to organize all manufacturing information around to the designing, producing, supporting and disposing of manufactured goods

Production planning and scheduling – Ability to create production schedules, including reviewing inventory levels, tracking lead times and making build-versus-buy decisions.

Purchasing – ability to source, track, and manage orders from the various vendors and suppliers they deal with

Scalability

Mobile Application Categories

Best Mobile Development Solution

Recognizes the best tool or resource for designing, creating or testing mobile applications. Includes programming language, toolkits, diagnostic programs, IDE, applet and plug-in development tools, database development programs, etc.

Judges will be looking for:

Agility – Can the solution make frequent updates and provide rapid response to change requests?

Ease of use – How well does the product allow users to achieve goals with effectiveness, efficiency, and satisfaction in a specified context of use?

Functionality of key attributes – Do the key attributes function as described?

Maintainability –Does the solution have the ability to analyze, test, and change aspects as needed?

Portability – Does the solution have the ability to adapt to different environments includes building, transferring and reinstalling programs?

Range of platforms covered – Does the solution have the ability to develop for a large range of mobile platforms and devices?

Usability – How easy is it to understand, learn and operate the tool or resource?

Deployment – How easy is it to deploy an app built with the product on multiple platforms.

Performances and monitoring – How the product support performances monitoring and crashes report.

Network & Systems Categories

Best Blockchain Solution

Recognizes the best solution for facilitating secure online transactions, where some digital ledger records transactions across many computers in such a way that the registered transactions cannot be altered retroactively. Can include applications and solutions, middleware and services and infrastructures and protocols, etc.

Judges will be looking for:

Data Integrity - Records are guaranteed to be cryptographically secure, with no possibility of bad actors threatening data integrity.

Decentralization – ability to store data across its network

Permissions Control

Scalability - The ability to secure trillions of transactions or records without compromising the networks synchronization, security, accessibility or data integrity.

Security - Support for data encryption and the management and enforcement of complex permission settings for participants and third parties.

Best Cloud Management Solution

Recognizes the best solution that ensures cloud computing resources are working optimally. This can include performance monitoring, application management, security and compliance, storage, and disaster recovery.

Automation of workflows - - How well does the platform let you automate certain activities? How well does the solution improve workflow? Does the solution have the ability to automate workflow of frameworks specific to IT service support?

Ease of use - – How well does the product allow users to achieve goals with effectiveness, efficiency, and satisfaction in a specified context of use?

Scalability - How well can the solution scale up and down?

Security - How secure is the tool? Are there adequate security measures? How robust is the security of infrastructure? Does it provide for secure identity and access management?

Best Platform as a Service

Recognizes the best platform as a service (PaaS) that increases the speed of development of applications, reduces cost of development, automates deployment, and provides flexibility and scalability. This includes enablement capabilities.

Judges will be looking for:

Customization – How easy is it to create, configure and deploy the service without requiring programming expertise?

Ease / speed of provisioning – Can the platform be easily and quickly prepared and equipped for use?

Integration – Can the platform integrate with web services and databases via common standards?

Multi-tenant architecture – Is the platform multi-tenant? Can multiple concurrent users utilize the same development application?

Programmable user interface – Does the solution have the ability to construct flexible user interfaces?

Scalability – Can the solution easily scale up and down?

Support – What level of support is provided for the development teams?

Best Ransomware Removal Tool

Recognizes the best tool for scanning and wiping out any ransomware attempts.

Judges will be looking for:

Ability to remove ransomware viruses

Ability to decrypt files that have been encrypted

Reliability

Scanning Capability

Threat Reporting

Best Software Defined Infrastructure

Recognizes the best technical computing infrastructure entirely under the control of software with no operator or human intervention.